Planning a party

"Right," said Aunty Beena, sitting down at the table, "I want to hear all the details. What has been decided about this fabulous party?"

"Well, we've had some differences of opinion," admitted Mum. Roshni pulled a face. "Roshni wanted
to invite her whole class to go ice-skating. I thought we couldn't afford that, so I've said she could invite
ten friends to a party at home."

"But Mum, I want all my friends to think my party is cool," complained Roshni. "That will be boring!"

"Mum's probably right, Roshni," Aunty Beena was thoughtful. "When you think about it, there'll be the five of you, Nani, me and all your Prasad cousins and their parents, before we even start thinking about which friends you choose to invite. A party at home doesn't have to be boring. It's a matter of choosing the right sort of activities to make it cool. What sort of things do your friends like?"

"They like music and dancing, dressing up, making things . . ."

"I know!" Mum had a brainwave. "We could take them on a virtual trip to India. They will never have done anything like that before, and we could do all the sorts of things you say they like."

"What a great idea," said Aunty Beena. "I'm sure if we ask around we can borrow enough saris to dress everyone up."

"Do you think you and Nani could do mehndi painting on our hands? My friends would love that."

Roshni was starting to get excited about the idea.

"What sort of food shall we have? They might not like anything too spicy if they're not used to it."

"Aunty Beena, could you teach us all an Indian dance? We've got plenty of the right sort of music."

"What sort of special things could we put into the party bags?"

"We could make party invitations that look like aeroplane tickets."

"What will Arun and Niraj do?"

"Hold on a minute," said Mum, reaching for a pad of paper. "I think we need to make a note of everything that we have decided, and all the decisions that we still have to make."